Friday Night in the Dark...a Bar, 2 Bikes and 4 Bridges

Friday night Brad and I met up with some of my coworkers for a beer at an Irish Pub (O'Donovan's). We had done the same the week before and then were really disappointed that we had to leave to catch the last train so this time...

We headed out early, took our bikes. The bar is, according to Google Maps, 6 miles from our house. We'll we didn't want to be all sweaty when we got there so we rode our bikes to the train, took the train to Sinnigen and then rode the last little bit to the bar. After 6 hours of talking, drinking beer, eating pizza, playing darts, and listening to the d.j., Brad and I headed home. I should add here that Brad had had a few beers...

We knew how to get home from Panzer, so we just needed to go about 1 to 1-1/2 miles to get there. Adrian gave us directions and off we went. The directions were to go up a really big hill 'till we saw the base, then turn left and we could go on the route we'd been on before. (I bet you can tell where this story is heading ;-) ) Adrian also said the bad part of the hill was just 4-5 blocks. Anyhow off we went, up the hill, stopping, up the hill, stopping, up the hill, after going about 6-7 blocks Brad started debating that we should have turned left already since we'd exceeded the 4-5 blocks. I argued that the 4-5 blocks was just the really steep part but we needed to go farther. Well we went a little farther and I was getting swayed over by Brad's arguments, so we back tracked and...yes....got a little lost. Actually, I wouldn't say lost, I knew where we were, but we ended up going back the mile we'd gone and then taking a different route, with a couple stops for breathers along the way, and a fun time coasting down that really big hill.

When we reached Panzer, we took the "Tank Road" home. This road is the actual cobblestone road the tanks would use between Panzer (another base) and Patch (where we live). It goes through forest so it's real quiet and away from everyone. The road is surprisingly smooth, and also not accessible to cars so it was perfect for us. Plus, it's uphill from where we live so most of the ride would be downhill. There were a couple really cool parts of this trip. We stopped on a bridge that goes over a couple train tracks. The bridge was still fairly warm so we were laying on our backs looking at the stars. There is nothing at all around there, and the only thing that indicates you're not in the middle of nowhere is the horizon is brighter. Sitting there for 10 minutes I saw 3 - yes 3!! - shooting stars. Two of them were the kind where they are burning out in the the atmosphere directly above you and paint a wide swath across the whole sky. It was really neat.

After the bridge there is the big hill - going down - it was really surreal since you can't see any further than the ike lights, which only illuminate about 50 feet ahead of us, and we just kept going and going. The hill is about 2 miles long, and you need to ride your brakes going down or you'll be going 60 mph or faster. Right after the hill ends is the other base, so we were finally home. We didn't get home until 3 a.m., and the ride took a lot longer than we thought it would, but overall it was pretty neat.